Industrial laundry applications require the processing of large numbers of flatwork textile articles. At various points in the process, the textile articles are washed and dried before they are laid flat and ironed. The steps of laying the articles flat and feeding them to be ironed are accomplished by a spreader/feeder. Spreader/feeders operate by receiving the corners of one edge of a textile article, spreading those corners apart so that the edge of the textile is pulled flat, and laying the textile on a roller or conveyer (also referred to as a feed table) to feed the textile to a downstream ironer.
Because a given spreader/feeder may receive textile articles of different sizes, each spreader/feeder must be able to spread the received textile article the appropriate length. If the opposing corners of a textile are not spread far enough apart, the textile will not lay flat on the feeder. If the opposing corners are spread too far, unnecessary stress is placed on the textile.
The differing natures of the textiles being spread presents a particular problem for the spreader/feeder. Indeed, each textile received by the spreader/feeder will have unique characteristics that affect the size of the textile and, thus, the spreading process. One reason for the variety of sizes between different textiles is moisture retention. Many items, when processed at the spreader/feeder, are wet—often with 30-40% moisture retention—whereas other items are completely dry. Two textiles from the same manufacturer, or even the same production lot, may be unequal in size due to their moisture retention. Furthermore, different textiles have often undergone differing numbers of laundered cycles, have differing exposure to use, abuse, and mending or repair, and are fed to the spreader/feeder in different ways. Not to mention that different textiles are made from a wide scope of materials including T120-600TC, 100% cotton, 60/40 cotton/poly blend, or poly-spun filament, each of which may be sourced from different manufacturers and countries with differing quality control standards. The net result is that the spread force applied to one textile may be sufficient to pull the textile flat, while the same force applied to another textile—having been processed more times, having different moisture retention, or made from a different material—will cause the textile to rip.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for detecting the length of a given textile to ensure that the textile is smoothly transferred from the spread mechanism to the feed table without improperly stretching the textile.